+570 Days of Bonus Time with Miss B!

UPDATE 4/9/2024: Miss B is now close to 16 years old. She got her stent 570 days ago and counting. Our brutally hot and humid East Coast summer is approaching and it‘s anyone‘s guess whether she‘ll survive it. But she‘s had an bonus year and a half of love and life thanks to a two inch piece of medical-grade silicone, and for that we are grateful.

9/9/2023: Three-hundred sixty five is an arbitrary number. But it's significant for Miss B and me because it moves her into the statistical category of 'lived > 1 years after...' Truth be told, I didn't expect her to live this long. Considering that Miss B was well over 14 years old with noticeable hind-end polyneuropathy 365 days ago, the fact that she's still alive with a good quality of life is quite a feat.

Miss B is probably well over 15 now. I got her in 2009 from a county pound in Georgia, so I'm not exactly sure how old she is. Sometimes she needs a lift getting up, and storms make her so agitated that I sometimes have to calm her down with trazodone. When I let her out to potty, sometimes she stands the re like she's not sure what she's supposed to be doing. I first noticed this change in her behavior several months ago. I call it ARF-heimers, but the official term is canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome or CDS. I don't love her any less and it doesn't make her life any less worth living. It just means she requires a little more care and consideration, something I'm more than willing to give for the companionship and devotion she has given me over the past 14 years.

Miss B still gnaws blissfully at her marrow-bone a few times a week and still loves to walk and sometimes even run short distances with her Goldendoodle neighbor Farley. I know it's a matter of time before I have to let her go, but this last +569 days has given Miss B the opportunity for a life not prematurely terminated by laryngeal paralysis. She won't suffocate to death or have to deal with the trauma of a legacy 20th century surgical procedure, and for that I'm very grateful. Even with her CDS, every day after September 9, 2022 with Miss B has been a blessing, one that every LarPar dog and their human companions deserve.